I'm of two minds about this manga. On one hand, when compared to other RoFans of similar premises, the plot is hella rushed. I think the story needs to stretch the story by one, or even two more tankoubons, giving the plot room to breathe and the relationship space to grow. As it is, the main characters fall in love so fast, and then the plot just passes by without weight or significance. But on the other hand, this story also manages to trim the excess fat in the 'fake marriage' genre. The emotions presented in this story are the premise at its purest and most distilledversion, pure of fragile and gentle companionship and yearning.

I am of the belief that not all stories has to be unique. When executed well, even the most predictable tropes and premises can still make a good story. This manga is one such example.

Like, I've seen people complaining about the uke, and I guess I can see why; he IS a very classic variant of the uke, the sunshine innocent uke, played completely straight. People who want to see a badass uke will be disappointed here. But I personally enjoy this story PRECISELY because the character trope is played straight.

The main characters here start off as opposite attracts, the warm sunshine blonde uke and the cold Duke of the North black-haired seme. But the story doesn't settle there and actually move both characters towards a shared center. The seme heals, revealing a warmer core, while the uke struggles and discovers about the pain of loss. Together they heal each other, together they support each other.

This movement is different from your usual BL, which generally settles to only moving one character towards the other. Together with the pretty art and the brilliant paneling, this creates a lovely dynamic in the story and adds to the warm and healing tone, embedding more weight in the usual 'fake marriage turned real' narrative.

So as predictable as the story is, I think the execution works really well for the most part. I just wish there's more space...